1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to surface contact card holder for holding a surface contact card in a portable electronic device.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
With the development of wireless communication and information processing technologies, portable electronic devices such as mobile phones are now in widespread use. These electronic devices enable consumers to enjoy the convenience of high-tech services anytime and anywhere. Surface contact cards such as subscriber identity module cards (SIM), compact flash cards (CF) and multimedia cards (MMC) having special circuits are widely used in portable electronic devices to enhance or specialize the functions of the portable electronic devices. For example, a surface contact card is placed in a mobile phone to dedicate the mobile phone's functions to the surface contact card owner. By changing the surface card, a single mobile phone can be used by many different surface contact card owners as a personal phone.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a typical surface contact card holder includes a base 62 made of insulating material and a holding structure 64. The base 62 defines a receiving groove 621 and a card connector 60 comprising a plurality of contacts is set in the middle of the receiving groove 621. The size of the receiving groove 621 is the same as that of a surface card. The holding structure 64 is located adjacent to one end of the receiving groove 621 and can be moved back and forth along the direction as indicated by the arrow shown in FIG. 1.
In use, firstly, the holding structure 64 is moved away from the receiving groove 621 and a surface contact card is received in the receiving groove 621. Then, the holding structure 64 is moved adjacent to the receiving groove 621 for latching the surface contact card in the receiving groove 621. In the same way, the surface contact card can be released by moving the holding structure 64 away from the receiving groove 621.
In the above surface card holder, the holding structure 64 can be easily moved, if a mobile phone employing such a mechanism for holding a surface contact card drops to ground, the shock will easily force the holding structure 64 to move off the receiving groove 621. As a result, the surface contact card will not connect well with the card contactor 60 or even be released from the receiving groove 621. Obviously, such a conventional mechanism can not hold the surface contact card steadily in the receiving groove 621.
Therefore, there is a need for a new holding structure, which can hold a surface contact card steadily in a portable electronic device.